our parish church

7/23/2019 Our Parish Church

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Our Parish Church

You have just stepped inside our

parish church. If you are free to walk

around you can have a look at

everything. But perhaps you are here

when the service is going on. So

there are two moments when you

come into this church. You can either

look at the uilding without the

worship. Or you are in the middle of

the worship! and you can only hear

what we are singing ut cannot see

much. You can either hear the

sounds or you can see the sights.

"hichever way! the church itself!

and everything in it! is a message to

us from all previous generations of

Christians in this town.

#et us start y saying what you see

$rst.

%his church is long and thin! with a

path up the middle. %he church is a

model of the Christian life! and the

Christian life is a long journey. %hiscentral aisle is our route. &s we walk

up this way we learn that we are

travelling along ehind many other

people! and that they are following

the #ord 'esus Christ. (e is taking

them and us with him. )any other

people keep us company on this

pilgrimage! and the #ord leads us

from the front and keeps us together.

)any of the psalms we sing tell us

that the Christian life is like walking

along a path. It is not easy to see the

way! ut if you follow the #ord! you

can keep going the right way! one

step at a time. *od+s word always

lights up the ne,t step. -Your word is

a lantern to my feet and a light to my

path! says Psalm //0. "ithout it! it

is easy to turn o1 the path y

mistake and lose your way.

%he main part of this long churchuilding is called the -nave. -2ave

comes from -navis! the #atin word

for -oat. You can see that the roof

looks like the inside of a oat.

Imagine you see an old $shing oat

hauled up on a each and turned

over. If you crawled in under the

oat! it would look like this roof.

%he church is like a oat. &n old word

for oat is -ark. It is taking us across

the seas! through the storms. %he

people of Israel knew that seas can

rage out of control! so they used the

word -sea as another way of saying-rage or -violent. %his church is the

ark that will get us through that

storm.

In some churches you see the altar

right in front of you! ut in our long

church you have to look through a

great wooden screen and the chancel

to see it.

You go up the middle aisle of the

nave and you get to this large

wooden lattice with an entrance in

the middle. %his is the rood screen.

-3ood sounds like -root ut it means

the whole trunk of a tree. %he wood

of this cross is a vast living tree! with

growing ranches that stretch across

our way. %his tree is the cross on

which 'esus was cruci$ed! and you

are standing at the foot of this cross.

You can see a cross up aove you

and under it the words -By thy cross

and passion deliver us. %he whole

wooden structure is a tree that is

udding and ursting into life. %his is

the tree of life. &ll humanity are

ranches that grow out of the one

central trunk! and 'esus is that trunk.

So you step through the tree that is

also the cross! and inside is the

sanctuary. -Sanctuary means -holy.

It is a garden. It is the *arden of4den! ut now 4den is eing

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redeemed! so it is decorated like

paradise. %he walls and 5oor and

ceiling have a 5ower6and6tendril

pattern that has een copied all over

every wall and wood surface in the

Church. 4verything is udding andgrowing. %he new growth has started

up here ut it is spreading out from

here all around the Church! and from

the Church it will spread ack out

into the world.

%his place is also known as the choir.

On each side there are enches!

which tells us that the people of *od

are a choir! or two choirs! one on

each side. One choir sings! and thenthe other choir sings in reply and so

there is a kind of conversation! just

as there in heaven. "hen you look

up you can see that angels! carved

and painted on the rafters! are

holding up the roof. 4ach angel holds

a scroll with words of the hymn

-*lory to *od in the highest7! so

you can read! or sing -7 and peace

to his people on earth! as you walk

round! following the song from oneangel to the ne,t.

"hen you look ack into the nave!

the main it of the church! you see

that the ig stone pillars are also like

trees! like the olive trees under which

the #ord gave the gospel to the

disciples on the )ount of Olives!

where the *arden of *ethsemane is.

So the whole church is a model of

the redeemed creation. &nd it is a

message to us from all the Christians

of this place over many centuries. -It

is good! they say! -good news of

great joy. -Pass it on! they say! -pass

it on.

&t the top of the sanctuary is the

altar and a step where we kneel to

receive communion. Communion is

what happens when the whole

congregation of people comes

together in the morning on Sunday.Of course some people come in here

every day in the morning and again

in the evening. %hey continue the

worship of the Church! which never

stops! even though we may not hear

it. But -communion! also known as

-fellowship! is the -togetherness ofthe Church that meets once a week

at the 4ucharist. "hen the #ord 'esus

is present! so is the whole Church.

-Church means -gathering. %he

Church itself is standing in for the

whole creation! so each gathering of

Christians is the $rst instalment of all

creation. One day all the fragments

will e gathered up and $tted

together! and will $nd their true

place in the whole unroken creationof *od. "hen all the roken pieces $t

each other everything will e

mended. *od now calls all the piece

together! and the $rst pieces that

arrive are the people who meet here!

and in every other church. %ogether

they are the sign that *od is at work

ringing things together and

reconciling them so that they not at

war with each other any longer. But

meanwhile! there is a di8cultprocess of getting used to eing with

these people. "hy are they all so

di1erent from me! you may ask9 %he

answer is! that they are so ecause

they are *od+s challenge to you. (e

gives them to you as a present! and

you have to learn how to value them.

Can you do it9 Yes! within this holy

communion! you can.

But why is it so complicated! youask9 "hy isnt it simpler9 "ell! many

churches are :uite simple! with plain

white walls. But Christians are always

trying to tell you the gospel as

simply as they can. &nd so they tend

to draw you a picture that puts the

gospel plainly and simply. Once all

churches were decorated with

painted scenes from the ile on the

walls. 4ach picture was simple

enough. )any of them show you 'esus healing or helping someone! or

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show you a parale. (ere you can

see a picture of <ing =avid and

another of the *ood Samaritan.

%hen! $ve hundred years ago many

Christians decided that there were so

many images in each church thatthey could no longer e understood.

%he simple message of the gospel

was eing lost in the clutter. So they

whitewashed over the images! took

out all the reminders of the saints!

and churches ecame :uite simple

again. Christians elieved that this

would make it easier to hear the

news of the gospel when the ile

was read out loud. %hat would also

make it easier for us to read the ilefor ourselves.

But Christians always create pictures

ecause people always ask for

something simple. %hough we left

the walls plain! we continued making

pictures on the glass of the windows.

(undreds of little pieces of coloured

glass are put together to create

pictures of the #ord and the apostles

and scenes from the ile. %hat waywe can also see what we are

listening to.

&t the ack of the Church on the

right the window has a picture that

shows you the 4ucharist. "hat you

see in this picture! you also see on

Sunday morning when the priest

holds up the read and cup. %here is

'esus in the middle! holding the

round loaf and a cup! aout to share

them with us. (e is going to let us

into this loaf. (e has gathered us and

all the other roken pieces of

creation to make this one! perfect

loaf. 2ow he calls this loaf his ody.

(e shows it to us and then he shares

it with us. (e reaks it open so that

we can come in! and ecome part of

this ody of his.

On one side is his mother )ary! on

the left as you look up! and )ary)agdalene who is holding the

ointment with which she anointed

the #ord. Both )arys are looking at

the #ord and then at us. It is the

same with all the apostles> "e just

follow their eyes and see the love in

the e,pression on their faces. %hesame with all the apostles? they look

at the #ord and we follow their eyes.

&nd the #ord9 (e looks at us! and

then he looks up to his @ather and

hold us up. If he didn+t hold us we

might run away. You see it is simple!

in a way.

So this is some ackground aout

what you can see in this church

uilding when it is :uiet. 2ow weneed to say what is going on when

the church is gathered on Sunday

morning and it is not :uiet at all.

The Church Service

On Sunday morning everyody

comes to worship the #ord together

here. "e call this into -holy

communion or -the 4ucharist.

%he service egins -In the name of

the @ather Son and (oly Spirit. %his

-@ather is Our @ather! ecause his

Son! 'esus has ecome our #ord. "e

say pulicly that we are the #ords

people! 'esuss people. "e tell the

world that we are the people who

elong to this #ord! the true master!

who is our @ather. "e don+t give our

time to any of the many little

-masters who other everyone else

in the world so much.In Church as we pray to him! we

come close to the #ord. "e ask the

#ord if we may enter his presence.

"e are only ale to ask ecause we

know that we may enter! and we

have entered and we stand before

him. (e has come to us! and y his

(oly Spirit we can stand here! right

in front of him. & similar prayer later

is called the -prayer of humle

access! which descries the

situation.

A



The Ministry of the Word

"e come ecause the #ord called us.

2ow we hear his call to us in the

scripture. In the ne,t stage four

passages from the ile are read out!

or sung out loud. 4veryody in the

ile is telling us to get ready for the

arrival of the #ord! and so they are

saying that we should shoo o1 all the

other little lords who try to get in the

way.

%he $rst passage comes from the Old

%estament! which means from the

patriarchs and prophets of the

people of Israel. %hey e,plain and

encourage and warn us! in order toprepare us for what is coming up.

4ven when things were going wrong

for them! the people of Israel were

passing on their e,perience to us

and so acting as *ods witnesses to

us.

%hen we read a psalm! which

responds to what the Old %estament

reading has told us. Someone sings

the psalm and we all sing one line ofit as our response. %hen we read

from the 2ew %estament! starting

with an epistle! a letter written y

one of the apostles! very often Saint

Paul! to one of the churches. %hen we

all sing a hymn which is some

version of the psalm or repeats the

message of the psalm! or is our own

glad response to that message.

%hen the priest reads from the

*ospel. "e get to our feet ecause

we treat the *ospel as the arrival of

the #ord himself. %he priest should

read that *ospel so slowly and

clearly that everyone in the uilding

should not only e ale to hear it!

ut to learn it! as he delivers it

phrase y phrase. Imagine that no

one had a ile of their own! and the

only way to receive the ile! is y

learning it o1 y heart as you hear it!week y week. %hat is how we should

hear the *ospel. "e have to chew on

that lesson from the *ospel all week!

ecause we have nothing else to live

on! nothing nourishing anyway.

So one witness responds to another!

and one part of the ile replies to

another. %he Old %estament

prophets speak and the 2ew

%estament apostles reply. &nd we

reply too! at the very least with our

-%hanks e to *od and our -&men.

&nd so week y week the #ord gives

us this great chorus of witnesses and

they give us the #ords message to

us.

%he #ord always introduces us to newpeople. Some of them! like the

apostles and other Christians! are

clearly on our side. But some of

whom seem to e against us. "e

have to learn from the Christians

how to cope with those who are

unhappy and at war with themselves!

are also at war with us! and with

everyone else around them. Our

Christian life comes as a series of

friends and companions. &nd itcomes as a series of ruising

meetings with unhappy people.

Some of them try to push you

around! or frighten you or lash out at

you in some way. It is a struggle with

people who don+t want us and don+t

want anything we can give them. It is

a long trek through unpopularity and

other peoples grief. It is a way of

glory and at the same time it is the

way of the cross.

%he ile prepares us for this y

introducing us oth to 'esus

disciples! and to those who hate him.

It gives us oth! at the same time. So

our life following 'esus is descried to

us y the gospel and the other

passages we read each Sunday of

the year. You don+t just get one

picture of the #ord. You get a new

picture of him each Sunday. &s theseimages 5ip past us we get a sort of



old6fashioned jerky movie of the #ord

moving along in front of us. "e see

the disciples and all the Christians in

front of us hurrying to keep up with

him. &nd we get etter at keeping

up! and we get etter at telling whois following 'esus and who is just

trying to get etween us and him!

and so getting in the way.

%he ile is read! and then the priest

gets up to open the passage for us.

(is jo is just to say what is there! so

we can see our own ne,t step. %hat

means he should repeat each

sentence in it and say the same

thing again in di1erent words. %henhe can connect it to the other

readings and to last weeks gospel!

so we can see how we have moved

on since last week. &s I say! the est

thing is simply to learn the passage

o1 y heart.

Your priest is to administer the "ord

and Sacrament. In other words! his

jo is to stand there ehind the great

pot of lam stew! and to push his

ladle down to the ottom and giveyou everything that comes up. Your

jo is to say -*ive us more meat!

@ather! or -*ive us more gravy!

@ather. #eave nothing out. %he

*ospel is the meat and the fat and

the onion and all the hers 6

rosemary! ay! sage! each week a

slightly di1erent taste. -(er means

-itter. %he gospel tastes itter!

$ery! sweet too sometimes! ut it

always is full of the goodness that

goes down deep and makes you

strong from the inside out. %ell the

priest that you are going to need that

nourishment to toughen you ready

for what is coming. %ell him that is

jo is not to entertain you and not

even to please you. (is jo is just to

look into the ile and then look into

your face and see what you need!

and without eing afraid of your

reaction! to give it to you! holding

nothing ack.

Christ gives us his message. (e tells

us who we are and who he is. &nd all

these people we meet in the

scripture are part of the message to

us. Of course we don+t understand

them or like them all straight o1. %he#ord shows us what is true! and what

is not! and we receive this as

knowledge. So that is the ministry of

the "ord.

Confession

2e,t come prayers and

intercessions! and then confession.

"e make our confession! that is! we

say what we need ut do not have!

or what we cannot do or have not

done. "e put together is all those

things that have gone missing! or

somehow got roken! dropped and

left ehind. %hese includes all those

times when you said or did too much!

for instance! shouting! when it would

have een enough to tell them! oreven etter! not to have told them.

You went too far9 %hats a -trespass.

You didn+t go far enough9 "e call

that a sin. Its whatever was left out

ut shouldnt have een.

=uring the week we can get ruised!

and then we sometimes lash out and

give each other ruises. 2ot real

ones! ut the hurt is inside. But in

the mass we e,change the kiss ofpeace. %hat is! we ask one another

for forgiveness and we do forgive

one another. "e give one another

the hug that came from *od! and

which rought us together in the $rst

place. "e share the handshake of

forgiveness around the church.

4veryone there recognises that

everyone else has received

forgiveness from the #ord! so we

must add our forgiveness too. "iththis handshake we pulicly make



peace with those around us in the

Church and this tells the rest of world

that the same truth6telling and the

same forgiveness are availale for

everyone. "e Christians take the

accusations! true and false! that theworld throws at us! and we swallow

them down! along with all the hurt

that caused them. %here is no place

to hide from the hard words of *od.

%hey are true! and they will $nd us!

and it is a relief when they do.

"e are sorry. "ell! sometimes we are

not sorry! ut! if we carry all this

un$nished usiness around it gets

heavier and we will e sorry aoutthat at least. You shouldnt try to get

used to the weight of it! though you

see so many people trying to. So

many people try to make out their

sins are just normal and they don+t

ever want to e parted from them.

But these sins are crumpling them up

like a slow illness! and the e1ort of

not saying so is making everyone

around them ill too. 2o. You want to

get rid of it. You want to dump itsomewhere. But where9 I know. %he

est place is at the altar when you

go up at the 4ucharist.

*o up to the altar and the moment

you reach the altar rail 5ip the whole

lot o1 your shoulder with a kind of

shrug and let it all shoot out. It will

disappear deep down under the altar

into *ods forgiveness and it won+t

come ack up. %hen you can skip

ack the way you came. %his may

not mean very much to you at the

moment! ecause your sins are so

small they wouldnt wet a paper ag.

But as you get older! everything gets

heavier.

But we can simply dump all these

sins. %hey stop eing ours. %hey are

'esuss prolem! and that means

they are no prolem at all. So sin

removed! and it is replaced withholiness. In fact it is holiness that is

very gently nudging sin out all the

time.

Ministry of the Sacrament

2ow we get to the )inistry of the

Sacrament! the 4ucharist itself. Itstarts something like this>

Blessed are you, Lord of creation. Of

your goodness we have this bread to

oer, which earth has given and

human hands have made.

*od is holy. &nd *od makes us holy.

Being with *od! which is what the

mass is! makes us holy. &nd so the

elements at the centre of the mass!

known as sacraments! make us holy.

*od himself does the work here! and

he uses whatever is to hand to make

us holy. 4ventually all creation will e

caught up into this work! and all

creation will ecome holy. But here

and now! in the mass! the $rst

instalments of this holy creation are

read and wine. 'esus told us to

reak read and drink this wine! and

so we do.

%he (oly Spirit is making us his holy

people. (e set to work on us at our

aptism Dor perhaps long efore! ut

we didn+t know aout itE and he een

at work on us ever since. &s you look

ack you can sometimes see how

this happened in di1erent stages!

and con$rmation is one of these. "e

could call the Spirits work

-sancti$cation F -holy6making. In

old 4nglish we used to say that theSpirit is hallowing us. -(allow is the

same word as -halo and -holy.

&ll this means that 'esus stands

efore the @ather! speaking with him

on our ehalf! saying the things! like

-%hank You! that we would say if we

could. &nd he asks the @ather to

overlook and forgive what is missing!

and then he just supplies whatever

that is. 'esus puts himself etweenus and our sins! and puts his own

G



ody etween us and those who are

trying to harm us! to shield us y

taking their lows himself. (e lifts us

up and holds us up! just as parents

do! just as he is carrying that lam

on his shoulders in that window overthe altar. Your parents raise you over

many years! and sometimes they

just pick you up and put you on their

shoulders like that. %hey can do this!

ecause in the ackground 'esus

raises us all up! and keeps us there

etween him and the @ather.

'esus shares his life with us. %his is

the life he shares with the @ather.

%ogether they reak o1 little piecesof that life and pass them to us. %hey

give us their life in instalments. But

they don+t just put each piece into

our hands and leave us there holding

it. (ow would we know what to do

ne,t9 %hey put it into us! just as you

put milk into a ay! or just as you

would low air into someone who

couldnt reathe for themselves.

%hat milk and that air do what is

necessary? our odies know what todo with them! or that milk and that

air know what to do to get our odies

going again. 'esus has reathed his

Spirit into us and that Spirit puts in

us some of what he shares with his

@ather. %heir relationship! or their

holy communion! is what they are

putting into us! and what they are

raising us up into. It revives us. "e

are ale to live within this

communion of theirs! and cant livewithout it. @or now! each little piece

of that communion F each sacrament

F prepares us to receive the ne,t

piece! so we are slowly rought up

into the whole communion. %hey are

ringing us into their company just

as you could Dand one day! willE ring

someone into your home and life.

%he #ord does not just put holy

things into our hands. (e also puts

us into situations in which you $nd

that you know what to do with these

holy gifts! even though you have

never done it efore. "ith them you

learn new skills. &ll the skills used

well together add up to what we call

Christian service or Christian love.

Sacraments give us the gifts andskills of the Spirit. So now! looking

ack at the ministry of the word! we

can say that *ods word and

scripture are not just knowledge

aout *od and aout us. It is also

fuel that powers us along! further

and further into *ods great

assemly.

%he @ather and the Son etween

them know we are not ready F notholy yet F and they work to make us

ready. "hen they have $nished! and

each of us is ready! they will declare

that we are holy. So meantime 'esus

works on us! to make6us6holy. (is

holy6making is his sacrice. %his is

his work. (e dedicates himself

entirely to it! and we can say that it

costs him everything! and he pays

whatever it costs. It is all at his

e,pense! and if it leaves him withnothing! still he will go through with

it until it is all done. But at the end!

we will e holy! and the @ather and

Son will decide that we are worth

their e1ort! and we will e :uite

amaHed.

Communion

"e go up to the altar to receive

communion. "hen you go up to the

altar with everyone else you all forma line! moving slowly forward up the

aisle. &t that moment you can see

that we have all set out on a long

walk that continues as long as our

lifetime! and which takes us on a trek

through the world. "e are going

through the desert with the people of

*od! led y the #ord who we can only

see as a distant column of $re and

smoke ahead of us. )ostly what we

see is the long column of people infront of us.



You are following the #ord! just as the

children of Israel did. You can

practise that long walk F in glory ut

through shame F every 4ucharist.

%he line of pilgrims only appears for

a minute! and no one points it out.But you can know that you are

always safe in the middle of that line!

ecause 'esus has pioneered the

route! lots of Christians F -saintsF

have followed and they now show

you the route. &nd lots of Christians

will follow you! and they will e

thankful ecause you keep the #ord

'esus in your view$nder and so you

show them the way too.

Standing before the Lord

In every church we look for the #ord

'esus where the altar is. (e is our

king and he is enthroned here.

Sometimes the ile tells us that the

earth is his footstool! and the altar is

a little version of that footstool. &ll

around the altar is white and gold!

re5ecting ack to us the rather

daHHling future glory of heaven. But

when all this light doesn+t laHe outat us too much! we can make out the

#ord and )ary and the disciples! and

ehind them! all the #ords people.

&ll of them are pointing out the #ord

for us. In this church! aove the

altar! in the window! we see the #ord!

with the lam across his shoulders!

St Peter on the left! St Paul on the

right. &ove them there is the (oly

Spirit! portrayed as a dove. (e

hovers over creation! keeping the

covenant of *od which protects us

all! and he comes down to us to ring

us into his holy communion. &nd

that is a pelican! who feeds his

children from the lood she takes

from her own reast.

"hen we see the priest in the mass

we see where 'esus is. 'esus puts our

priest and servers there! so we look

in the right direction! even thoughwe cant make 'esus out. On either

side of the priest are two servers

who help us to focus on the right

place. %hey are doing the jo of the

angels! framing the view of Christ in

the middle! like a range6$nder. "hen

it is talking aout the angels in themost holy place in the temple! the

Old %estament calls them the

Cheruim. &ll angels sing! Holy, holy,

holy 7 and we join in with them.

So we see 'esus twice at least. Once

in the image of 'esus portrayed

aove the altar Dor maye on the

cross on the altarE! and once in the

priest who stands at the altar. But

without these images! we don+t see 'esus yet. "e are not ready. But he is

making us ready.

3ememer the lind man in the

*ospel of )ark DJ.;E who said he

could only see stick6men! -like trees

walking around9 3ememer how

di8cult it was for the disciples on the

way to 4mmaus to realise who they

were looking at9 'esus and everyone

around him are still completely lurry

to us. It is as if we can sometimesmake out their outline! ut mostly

only see the rilliance without eing

ale to see who it is who shines that

rightly.

%he priest looks like any other

Christian. (e wears the dull6coloured

clothes of poverty Decause in

theory! only rich people wear right

coloursE. But in the 4ucharist! he

puts on the right white garment ofthe holiness that *od is spreading

over all of us. *od lends us his

holiness! and since he doesn+t ask for

it ack! it stays with us! and the (oly

Spirit always tops it up for us. So the

priest ecomes one of the holy

things! just like the read and wine.

&s this read and wine ecome holy!

and we receive them! we ecome

holy. Of course this takes our whole

lifetime and more. But in the4ucharist the priest! along with all

J



the other elements and the prayers!

is a true6to6life portrait of our own

future holiness. Sometimes the priest

is dressed in the green of creation!

with gold! reminding us that man is

placed in creation in order to lookafter it! and that creation will e

redeemed and glorious! just as we

will. So even the vestments of altar

and priest tell us aout our own

future.

"e will see 'esus as he really is! and

we will be like him! and we will shine

like that too. &nd sometimes! when

others see us! they may get a

glimpse of that future glory.Sometimes they like the look of that

glory! and sometimes they turn away

from it. "e cant see it when we look

at each other! and yet! in the

4ucharist! we can learn to see each

other as we will e! when we are all

made holy and this glory shines

through each of us too.

Holy, holy, holy

"e are at the doorway into heaven."e can hear the singing and make

out some of the words. "e stand

efore the #ord and he speaks to us!

and he does so through these many

voices. &nd we hear what they are

singing and saying in heaven! and

we are ale to join in. 4veryody is

there. %here are out there! in a place

that is wide open. "e are still stuck

here in a smaller space! ut this is

good ecause we are not yet readyfor life out there in that much igger

place. It is too much for us! and there

is no point in sending us out there

efore we are strong enough for it.

Our con$nement here is preparing us

for the time when we are ready! just

as splashing around in the shallow

end means you the getting ready forthe deep end! and that one day you

will e ready for the sea.

"hat do you see in the service when

church is full of people9 You see

people. You see them from ehind!

and some of them see you from

ehind. "e see people who are

ahead of us? they started out efore

us! and now they are older! they

have got a it further. "e look tothem for their e,perience. So in the

service the #ord surrounds us with

people and always presents us with

new ones.

&t the e,change of peace they will

come and shake your hand and at

the end they will introduce

themselves to you. %hen you can ask

them what they are doing here. &sk

them why they come. &sk them

something aout the service. &skthem what their favourite it is and

why they like it. &sk them which their

favourite hymn is. You are too shy9

You are afraid that you don+t know

anything and will sound silly9 =on+t

e. %hey will proaly e glad you

asked your :uestion. %hey may e as

shy as you are! ut they will glad if

you ask them a :uestion.

So what do you think of our parishchurch now9

0

our parish church

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